I
have often been asked if I use the King James version of the Bible. My reply is, “if it was good enough for St
Paul, it is good enough for me.” Yes, I
know Kings James was not around when Paul was writing his letters to the
various churches. I also know that there
are some issue with the King James. It
is hard to read; it is difficult to
understand, and there are word that don’t
mean the same as they do today. Since I
grew up with the King James, I am more
comfortable with this version and believe it is closer to the original message
that God intended us to have than other English versions. I am not trying to start a discussion on
which text is the best.
Here
is my recent rant.
Over
the course of human history, there has
been a message from God the Creator that has been preserved to guide us in the
ways of righteousness and holiness--the Bible.
Governments and religious authority have a long history of suppressing
knowledge that conflicts with traditional beliefs regarding man's origin and
spiritual conflict in which we are engaged. Since the existence of man, there has been an effort to silence the
Word of God. Once the message of God was
put into written form, there was an even more significant effort to destroy the message. Government authorities formed edicts and
prohibitions condemning it to the fire, only in vain. These documents and copies of them survived. The book
survived. Its preservation though wave after wave of assault throughout
centuries has been termed "a miracle of history."
What
has been more remarkable, is the fact that a collection of knowledge over five
millennia old has been subjected to such opposition and secrecy yet it
continues to exist. Why would this knowledge that can change the lives of
individual for good be suppressed? Since the beginning of man's creation, Satan
has worked to misguide mankind. Satan’s
lies about creation, about the Divine
laws of God, the moral statutes, the genetic and physical laws which are now
being revealed by modern science cannot be allowed for man to know because they all show the real Creator to be Jesus Christ.
The
Apostle John commented in his Gospel account that "All things came into
existence through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into
existence."-Proverbs 8:22,30,31.
John
also tells us that Jesus Christ is the
Light that lighteth every man that cometh into world.
The
genetic origins of the human race also invokes mystery and scientific debate.
The recent decoding of human DNA has established but one single origin-Adam.
The Genesis document merely says that God
created each "according to its kind."
The Hebrew Scriptures expose the lies of Satan. Man was not an accident or the process of evolution
or made by some alien race but by the Creator of the Universe. Genesis 1:26
records the origin of man, "Let us make man in our image, according to our
likeness." Each cell of the human body has been likened to a walled city,
with a central government to maintain order, a power plant to generate energy,
factories to produce proteins, a complex transportation system, and guards to
regulate what is permitted to enter. And a single human body is made up of as
many as 100 trillion cells. In the human brain,
there is evidence of intensive research and careful engineering. How it
functions is still mostly a mystery to
scientists. Our brain has the built-in
capacity to learn complex languages, to appreciate beauty, to compose music, to
contemplate the origin and meaning of life.
The creation of man leaves only one choice; man was created by a Superior Intellect, responsible for the
design and development of both heart and brain are beyond the capacity of man
to understand.
The
Bible contain references to watchful spiritual beings above, about, and on the
earth who, on occasions, have contacted and interfered with political agendas
of world governments since recorded time. One must study ancient history of the
Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and the Romans in light of Biblical prophecy to appreciate
why it has been suppressed and attacked for centuries. Ever wonder why such
effort was made to preserve it? Is it merely
so that the Bible can have a good effect on our lives? Could there be a much broader and more profound reason? Yes, why is
it that determined efforts were made in the past, and are still made, to
prevent its message to be known and understood in our day? One reason is that
its prophecies have proven to be 100% accurate.
One
of the obstacles to the preservation of the Bible was met with fire. The vast library at Alexandria, Egypt, was without
question the most significant collection
of ancient books the world had yet seen. At one time its ancient shelves bulged with over a half million
documents administered by the Egyptian government. Scarcely 350 years from its
construction in the third century B.C., a fire was set by a mob determined to
destroy the secret history of the ancient world before the Great Flood. Soon
what was left of its valuable documents was pillaged and destroyed. Among these
archives was the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scrolls of the Jewish Nation
known as the Greek Septuagint (the work of the Seventy scribes). This extensive collection of books, written for the
most part on papyrus (a paper-like material made from the fibers of the
plentiful Egyptian papyrus plant), was a natural obstacle to a book's
survival-fire, along with the destruction caused by evil men. Had the books
been stone or clay tablets rather than perishable papyrus, they may might have
fared better. Yet on this same perishable material papyrus, parts of the
Christian Greek Scriptures (the New Testament) may have been written in the
first century A.D. Mainly used in Bible writings was parchment or vellum (a
writing material made from the skins of animals). This too can be burned and in
time will rot. How quickly the original
handwritten copies of the Bible could have perished forever without a duplicate
to replace their valuable content.
However, many copies were made and circulated, so the knowledge was not lost,
though written on perishable materials. Very few people can read ancient
Hebrew. Yet this is the language God communicated his disclosure in. Apparently, if it were only in this script
today, it would be a dead book! However, at the time the text was used, all who utilized the Hebrew
documents, as well as many in the surrounding countries, could read that style
of writing with understanding.
After
the death of Jesus, Roman authorities persecuted Christians with the first
assault against the Bible coming in 303 A.D. Emperor Diocletian then decreed
that all Christian books be handed over and burned. Diocletian
went on to say that if one had a copy of the Scriptures and did not surrender
it to be burned if it were discovered, he
would be killed. Furthermore, if any other should know of one who had a copy of
the Scriptures, and did not report it, he also would be killed. During this
time many, many copies of the Bible were burned, copies painstakingly written
in longhand. Of this period. the historian Newman said, "Multitudes . . .
hastened to deny the faith and to surrender their copies of the Scriptures;
many more bore the most horrible tortures and refused with their latest breath
to surrender the Scriptures or in any way to compromise themselves"
(Newman, Church History, p. 169). However, some like Felix of Thiabara
(Africa), refused to turn over the Scriptures. He said: 'It is better for me to
be burned than the divine Scriptures.' He paid with his life.
After this proclamation had
been in force for two years, Diocletian boasted, "I have completely
exterminated the Christian writings from the face of the earth!" (Rimmer,
Seven Wonders of the Wonderful Word, p. 15). But had he utterly destroyed it?
In
time, the Bible was translated into Latin, the secret and sacred language of
the Roman Catholic Church. No longer willing to put forth effort to understand
the Bible, many found it easier just to admire
its pages and let it become a "sacred relic." In 1223, James the
First, King of Aragon, Spain, ordered that "No man shall possess books of
the Old or New Testament in Romance [the common language]." Similarly, in
1229 the Religious Synod of Toulouse, France, issued a proclamation that said: "Lay people shall not have books of
scripture." In 1369, King Charles IV, Emperor of Germany issued a proclamation that ordered Archbishops to
launch "inquisitors and confiscate" Bibles written in the common
language. Though valiant efforts by a few to translate portions from the
"sacred" Latin Bible did occur, it did not stop official sanctions
against them. Government decrees placed the death sentence on any who possessed
a Bible in the universal language were
burned to death.
Even
the translators were in peril. When the printing press came on the scene,
translated copies of the Bible could be reproduced faster than they were
destroyed. William Tyndale, who translated from the original languages, not
merely from the Latin said: 'a boy that drives a plow' could read and
comprehend it. Through bribery and betrayal, Tyndale was strangled and burned
at the stake. What were the real reasons? Noted Catholic scholar Eramus wrote:
"In many places in the sacred volumes the vices of pastors and princes are
reproved, and if the people were to read them, they would murmur against those
set over them." Those in power in the Courts and in the Vatican mistakenly
feared that unauthorized persons would make faulty translations in the
vernacular and kept it hidden in the Latin language for which only the educated
and privileged could read.
There
were attempts to tamper with the text of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Greek version of the writings of the Jewish apostles
of Jesus. Unscrupulous bishops and scholars began removing texts and adding others. Tertullian was
suspected of "openly used the knife, not the pen" to excise portions
of the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible where it "suited his own
subject matter" and erased "everything that was contrary to his own
opinion." Like all secret documents, sensors find it convenient to redact
or remove what they consider damaging to their power base, you could say,
became the first of classified documents in history.
Even
the American President Thomas Jefferson created his own version of the
Bible. As early as 1804, when he was
still president, Jefferson began separating "the diamond from the
dunghill," as he later put it, to assemble his own version of the Bible.
Jefferson continued the project in earnest during his later years at
Monticello, poring over various editions in Greek, Latin, French, and King James English. He clipped the passages
he thought were genuine teachings of Jesus and pasted them, in the four
languages side by side, onto pages.
In
1820 -- six years before his death at the age of 83 -- Jefferson produced a
leather-bound, 84-page volume titled The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth,
Extracted Textually From the Gospels in Greek, Latin, French & English.
Jefferson eliminated everything in the Bible concerning miracles. He ended the
Gospel story with the execution and burial of Jesus, omitting the resurrection.
The retained passages, Jefferson explained in an 1813 letter to John Adams,
contain "the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever
been offered to man."
The Bible declares that It can never be destroyed. The abundance
of copies of the Scriptures now available is abundant proof that It has made right Its claim. In many passages, the indestructibility of the
Scriptures is pronounced. In 1 Pet. 1:24, 25, we read: "All flesh is as
grass, And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass, The grass withereth,
and the flower falleth: But the word of the Lord abideth forever." It will
never cease to be. Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my
words shall not pass away" (Matt. 24:35). When the heavens shall have
passed away with a great noise, the elements melted with fervent heat, the
earth and the works therein burned up, the Bible, the word of the Lord, will
yet remain. Isaiah said, "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the
word of our God shall stand forever" (Isa. 40:8). The Scriptures teach
that the word of the Lord -must remain until time is no more, and even through
the Judgment, for by the word of God we shall be judged. Jesus said, "He
that rejecteth me, and receiveth, not my
sayings, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I spake, the same shall judge
him in the last day" (Jn. 12:48). As John tells of the Judgment scene, he
says, "And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the
throne; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the
book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in
the books, according to their works" (Rev. 20:12). The Scriptures teach
that from the time that the word of the Lord was put in written form, until the
Judgment, God’s Word shall never be destroyed.
The
Word of God is His covenant with mankind and applies to every generation from
the time of Adam. Ever since God has
made His Word known, to man, there have
been those who question what He has said.
The results of question the Word of God are false teachings, false
religions, and schism in the Christian world.
We now have "translations" for the LGBT, feminist, those who
deny the Virgin birth, those do not see the necessity of the Blood of Christ
for redemption. This list goes on to
include denominations that commissioned the translation to meet their version
of belief which taints the message of God.
Nothing makes a person angrier than someone to take what they say out of
context, twist the words and misrepresent what has been said. If this makes people mad, how do you think
God feels when His Word is distorted?
God does not want His Word tampered with;
it is His unchanging, infallible
Word.
Centuries
before Jesus Christ was born, the Hebrew
Scriptures were meticulously copied by devoted scribes. These were called
Sopherim; a term apparently derived from
the Hebrew verb "to count." Why? 'The early scholars were called
Sof'rim,' according to the Talmud, 'because they counted all the letters of the
Law.' Yet, to have no mistakes in copying would require the attention of
Jehovah himself every time a scribe picked up a pen. Were these serious enough
to destroy the Bible? Or is there evidence to show that, despite thousands of
years of recopying, the Hebrew text is virtually the same? For many years those
questions were unanswered. All this changed in 1947.
In
the spring of 1947, in a small cave overlooking the Dead Sea in Palestine, a
15-year-old boy found a cave that contained “the greatest manuscript discovery
of modern times...an absolutely incredible find!" Here were parts of the
Bible that date back into the second century B.C., 1000 years earlier than the
oldest copies available up to that time. How would they compare with the more
recent copies? Millar Burrows, who worked with the scrolls for years, analyzing
carefully their contents, stated there was "a remarkable agreement, on the
whole, with the text found in medieval manuscripts." The differences were
so slight and negligible that it gave "reassuring testimony to the general
accuracy of the traditional text," and Burrows exclaimed that "It is
a matter for wonder that through something like a thousand years the text
underwent so little alteration."
The
proliferation of so many translations of the Bible has done more to change the
teachings of God’s Word than any other thing.
The Bible warns that there would be those who would corrupt the word of
God (2nd Corinthians 2:17) and handle it deceitfully (2nd Corinthians 4:2).
There would arise false gospels with false epistles (2nd Thessalonians 2:2),
along with false prophets and teachers who would not only bring in damnable
heresies but would seek to make merchandise of the true believer through their
own feigned words (2nd Peter 2:1-3).
In
the days of the Apostles, and shortly afterwards, several doctrinal heresies
arose. Their early beginnings are referred to in the New Testament in such
places as Galatians 1:6-8; 1st John 4:3; 2nd John 1:7; and Jude 1:3-4. They not
only plagued the early Church but are
still with us today.
There are three version of the Bible that are changing the doctrinal teachings of Jesus
and the early Apostles; these are the NIV, NASB and The Message
paraphrase. Christians using these texts
are being deceived. Some who worked on
the NIV admitted that the translator’s own beliefs influenced their work this
included the atonement, homosexuality, conversion, the Trinity, and the Son of
God.
Authority loses credibility when it begins to deceive and takes executive action to suppress
what it feels is 'Church' property. The
way the Scriptures are being crushed
today is ministers no longer use the Bible as the foundation of their
message. The message from the pulpits
has become secular and void of Bible principles and doctrines. The Bible has been forsaken for “self-help psychology” of men like B. F. Skinners, and Sigmund
Freud.
Psychology has its roots in ancient philosophers like Socrates, Aristotle,
and Plato. None of these men were worshipers of the living God. At best, they
believed in a god that was not involved in the affairs of men, and at worse, they worshiped multiple pagan gods.
Modern psychology was brought to the forefront by Sigmund Freud in the late
nineteenth century. Freud indeed wasn’t a
godly man. He was obsessed with sex and linked every problem of man to the
sexual drive. This man had serious issues; even
his most devoted followers admitted that.
Here is the point: If the root is bad,
then the tree has to be bad. Jesus said
this very plainly in Matthew 7:17-18:
“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree
cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good
fruit.”
The root of psychology is terrible, so,
the fruit cannot be virtuous. I’m amazed
at the acceptance of a pagan and ungodly message of secular psychology being
preached from the pulpits today. Many churches and ministries have resident
psychiatrists on staff. This isn’t the approach Jesus took. He met the needs,
all the needs of the people through the power of the Holy Spirit, and I believe
He intends His church to do the same. They don’t have to depart and go to the
world to get their emotional needs met. They should bring them to Jesus (Matt.
14:16-18). Ministers need to get back to
the Bible; it contains the answer to
man’s emotional and spiritual condition.
As
Napoleon once said: "The Bible is no mere book, but a Living Creature,
with a power that conquers all that oppose it."
